Core Curriculum

• • Weekly, Tuesday mornings for 90 minutes
  • Resident and faculty lead sessions
  • Interactive and case based

The Core Curriculum in General Surgery is designed to provide residents with a strong knowledge base in the fundamentals of diagnosis and treatment of surgical diseases by providing a framework in which to build their skills in lifetime learning in general surgery.  The Surgical Council on Residency Education (SCORE) Portal for general surgery is the backbone of the medical knowledge required of those in general surgery residency and thus is the resource provided to our residents. 

The weekly 90 minute Core Course covers subject areas based on the SCORE general surgery curriculum and is designed to allow residents preparation through the SCORE Portal prior to these weekly interactive teaching sessions.  It will consist of four components:  (1) required preparation through the SCORE Portal.  (2) A five question pre-test to assess preparation and baseline knowledge prior to CORE discussions.  (3) A 15 minute summary by the assigned resident, highlighting key points of the subject. The resident is assigned a level- appropriate topic and sends slides to the Attending Mentor 5 days in advance for review and feedback, teaching them the art of making a succinct and effective presentation. (4) The resident presentation is immediately followed 60 minutes of case-based, board exam format, and interactive question/answer discussions lead by the Attending Mentor. The attendings are selected by the residents as exemplary educators and teach on a voluntary basis.   30% of the questions are directed at the junior residents (R1, 2) and 70% at the senior residents (R3-5).

General Surgery Core Curriculum Lectures

You can find a current schedule of our lectures on our Scalpel website   (http://scalpel.stanford.edu/) and by clicking on the “Stanford Calendar”.